Classical Music Magazine
Editor's Choice: 'Ticciati directs a vibrant, unsentimental account of this enduring score, and is joined by a near-perfect cast...'
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Audiophile Audition
'This is a spectacular recording in sumptuous surround sound, and the orchestra and soloists are terrific in every way...'
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International Record Review
'Robin Ticciati’s new version…is sensitive and scrupulous, responsive to the subtleties of Berlioz’s score and the emotions of the participants.’
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Classical Ear
‘Each of the vocal soloists is excellent, whether narrating or portraying a character, and the good people that inhabit the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and its Choir respond sensitively and, when required, dramatically to Ticciati’s carefully plotted course…Fantastique!’
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Infodad
'The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra plays this music very well indeed...The four soloists are all very fine.'
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Choir & organ
‘[Ticciati] obtains excellent results from them, and his phenomenal chorus, in idiomatic French, catch much of Berlioz’s tender response to the narrative of Christ’s early childhood.’
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The Telegraph
'As the piece proceeds, he negotiates its pacing, its contours, its shifts of emotional emphasis with an assured, evocative hand...'
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SA-CD.net
'...sounds so French and oozes with idiomatic Berlioz...'
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MusicWeb International
'This is a most welcome release which further enhances the credentials of Robin Ticciati, especially in Berlioz.'
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AllMusic.com
'... good for listeners who crave a bit of lushness...this audiophile recording is worth hearing for its subtlety and beauty.'
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Financial Times
‘The orchestra and choir respond to the conductor’s direction with sensitivity: the angelic choral contributions are a highlight.’
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The Arts Desk
‘Glorious music, impeccably performed and magnificently recorded.’
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BBC Music Magazine
'Ticciati's conducting is warm and vivid, and his textures translucent...'
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Gramophone
'...full of honeyed tones and an occasional exotic splash.'
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The Observer
'...this new [recording] is beautifully fluid, flexible and transparent...'
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The Times
'Past performances have already established Robin Ticciati as a sterling Berlioz conductor...this latest Linn release, with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Radio Choir, wins him another laurel.'
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This absorbing performance of Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ is affecting and expressive, sung with terrific gusto by The Swedish Radio Choir.

With Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" (CKD 400) in 2012 and the coupling of "Les Nuits d'été" with "La Mort de Cléopâtre" (CKD 421) earlier this year, there was clear evidence of Robin Ticciati's affinity with markedly different facets of Berlioz's imagination.

Here Ticciati explores with equal perception the dramatic tableau that Berlioz assembled over a number of years, and which eventually had its first complete performance as "L'Enfance du Christ" in 1854.

"The Childhood of Christ", tracing the biblical story from Herod's dream, through the flight into Egypt and on to the Holy Family's sojourn in Sais, is a hybrid work. It's an oratorio, but one with an operatic impulse as well, as can be heard here with particular force in the scene between Herod and the exotic soothsayers in Part 1. The Swedish Radio Choir sings with terrific gusto at this point, with the instrumentation brilliantly defined by the orchestra and Ticciati.

But the absorbing impact of this performance lies in the fact that such gripping fervour is balanced and blended with the deliberately archaic style that Berlioz deploys elsewhere. Right from the opening bars, with those strange, harmonium-like sonorities that the woodwind produce, you have complete confidence that Ticciati understands the Berlioz hinterland.

As the piece proceeds, he negotiates its pacing, its contours, its shifts of emotional emphasis with an assured, evocative hand, the famous "Shepherds' Farewell" assuming its lyrically tender place in the overall scheme.

Alastair Miles impressively encompasses both the nervous tensions of Herod in Part 1 and the Father of the Family's sympathetic solace in Part 3. Véronique Gens and Stephan Loges are eloquently matched as Mary and Joseph, and the narrator Yann Beuron fluently and expressively establishes the context for a first-rate, affecting performance and a timely seasonal release.